PROMINENT, THE REPUTATION OF INDONESIAN POLICE IN DARFUR

 A few weeks ago, the Government of Indonesia was asked to increase the number of police personnel as members of Force Police Unit of the United Nations in Darfur, Sudan, Africa. Currently there are as many as 140 Indonesian police officers as FPU in Darfur. They are divided into two groups, namely the United Nations Mission in Sudan-Unmis and the United Nations Mission in Darfur or UNAMID.

A number of police adviser from other countries admitted that the performance of Indonesian Force Police Unit (FPU) is considered outstanding compared to 13 other countries that send their police in the UN assignment. For that good performance, the UN asked for additional personnel FPU from Indonesia again to strengthen supervision in the southern Sudan region that has long civil war and turmoil caused by seizure of natural resources.

To fulfill the request, in addition to doing personnel training, Indonesia is also preparing various equipment that will be used in Darfur, which the situations and conditions is far different from this tropical country. So far, Indonesia has already sent a number of police in Darfur with their specific weapons such as Steyr AUG A3. This weapon is considered very suitable used in Darfur region because it is easy to use, weatherproof, and resilient.

In addition, Indonesia also equipped their police personnel with non-lethal weapons called “Pepper Ball Launcher.” This weapon is a modification of Paint Ball or Soft Gun, whose bullets are replaced with Pepper Ball. This weapon is proved effective enough to suppress the demonstrators if at any time, the police forces have to face demonstration.